The present invention relates to a packaged product for the delivery of products, preferably cleaning products comprising a surfactant, and to the use of the packaged product.
Trigger spray devices are known for the purposes of domestic cleaning, for example for cleaning hard surfaces such as windows, baths and ovens, as well as for spot cleaning of floor coverings such as carpets. Most trigger spray devices which are commercially available are manually activated, that is to say that the devices comprise a trigger which is activated by hand by the consumer. Most commonly this manual activation generates liquid pressure in a chamber by means of a positive deplacement pump by means of a positive deplacement pump which in turn drives the liquid from the chamber usually through a dispensing nozzle. Many dispensing patterns are possible, but a conical spray is the most common.
Large surfaces, such as carpets and other floor coverings are, however, difficult to treat with a hand activated trigger spray device. The large surface area demands repeated manual activation of the device many times. This is laborious, and usually results in an uneven application of product over the whole of the surface.
An electrically activated sprayer is known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,993,250, issued on Nov. 23, 1976, however there is no suggestion that this sprayer could be used for the purpose of cleaning surfaces such as carpets. Furthermore while this sprayer could take some of the laborious work out of the task when compared to manually activated trigger sprayers, it still does not fully address the problem of uneven application of product over the whole surface of the carpet or floor covering.
An extended arm is known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,904,116, issued on Sep. 9, 1975. This device is taught principally for use with the application of insecticides.
The object of the invention is firstly to provide a packaged product comprising a package having a liquid reservoir for containing a product, preferably a cleaning product, and a means for delivering the product in a labour efficient way and in a uniform manner. A further object of the invention is to provide a new use for the packaged product.
According to the first aspect of this invention this object is achieved by a packaged product in which the means for delivering the liquid preferably comprises an electrically driven pump, and further comprises a spray arm, the spray arm being either extended or extendible and having at least one dispensing opening so that in operation, the product is pumped by the electrically driven pump from the liquid reservoir, through the spray arm, to the product dispensing opening from which it is dispensed. It is firther preferred that the spray arm communicates with the liquid reservoir by means of a flexible connector.
According to the second aspect of this invention a new use is achieved in which a product, preferably a cleaning product is applied using a device comprising an electrically driven pump.